Terry ONeill - The Beatles by Terry ONeill: Five decades of photographs, with unseen images

The Beatles

By Terry ONeill

The Beatles

By Terry ONeill

Five decades of photographs

with unseen images

Captions by

Terence Pepper with Grace Lee

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Introduction -

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Introduction

Terry ONeill was a working-class boy from Romford who became the most prolific photographer of his generation but before he ever picked up a camera, he dreamed of becoming a musician. As he was establishing himself in the world of media photography in the early 1960s, The Beatles four Liverpudlian boys from similarly underprivileged stock, who shared his original dream were working tirelessly in the pursuit of success.

By the summer of 1963, the band had tasted that success in the form of their chart-topping debut album, Please Please Me . They were stars on the rise but still far from the full height of their fame. In July, they travelled to Londons Abbey Road Studios.

Meanwhile, over on Fleet Street, Terry ONeills reputation as a bold young grafter with an ear for good music and a finger on the cultural pulse had caught the attention of the Daily Sketchs picture editor, Len Franklin, who tasked ONeill with documenting a burgeoning phenomenon.

We think youth is on the rise in England and its going to change the world, Franklin said. We want you to photograph that. The mission began with a trip to Abbey Road, where the Beatles were in the middle of recording one of their most successful early hits, She Loves You.

The studio was unionized then, ONeill later recalled. Manned by technicians in brown work coats, shirts and ties, who had to be paid overtime and took tea breaks. It was during one of those breaks that I took The Beatles out to the backyard for a portrait.

Though ONeill would later describe the shot as amateurish, it possessed a candid, of-the-moment appeal that was rarely seen in media shots of that era: the spontaneous backyard setting, with its gritty walls looming like a symbol of the bands working-class background, along with their posture and style longish hair and smart-casual clothes, holding their instruments with intent seemed to capture both the shifting mood of the culture and The Beatles place within it.

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The photograph languished in Franklins in tray for several weeks until, one Saturday, with no breaking news to report, it was printed on the magazines front page. The issue sold out, generating hype around the young four-piece and helping them on their way to the superstardom that would follow. I didnt realize at the time that I was part of history, O Neill said. They were young, I was young, and the world was young.

But times were changing. In pre-1960s Britain, young people werent considered important they were fodder for the office, the factory, or the frontline. Then came the end of automatic conscription in the National Service. For a post-war generation who wanted something new, the world opened up. They rejected the music, clothes and social mores of their parents. They filled pubs and clubs and danced to rock n roll. Two phenomena that defined this heady cultural moment? The music of The Beatles, and the photography of Terry ONeill.

We all used to hang out at the Ad Lib Club ONeill recalled, actors, musicians, designers, photographers and models, all chatting about our work. We never stopped to ask what it meant, we were simply having a great time. Wed all started out together in one of the biggest cultural and social revolutions for decades. Most people were from the working and lower classes and getting opportunities theyd never had before. No one thought it would last. If it all went wrong, George Harrison told me he wanted to work in a shop. Ringo Starr was going to buy a chain of hairdressers.

It was the start of enduring relationships, both personal and professional, between The Beatles and Terry ONeill. He shot them again on the set of their 1964 film, A Hard Days Night , and as they rehearsed at Wembley Park Studios before their television special. The Beatles knew how to work the camera my camera, as well as the television cameras. They were magic on film, and what we were doing behind those cameras was to propel them from a club band to number-one recording artists.

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In autumn of 1964, ONeill and Ringo, by then good friends, sauntered on to Downing Street with a camera and a Cuban cigar. Ringo was a fan of Winston Churchill and his V for Victory hand sign, and wanted to pay homage to the elderly statesman and his greeting. In those days, there was no terrorism, so the public could just walk past the front door, ONeill remembered. Ringo bit the cigar and raised the V, and ONeill took a photograph which captured the intersection of British politics and art in the second half of the twentieth century. He did the pose and then we were off. I think we were both nervous hed be spotted and we didnt want to attract too much attention. At this time, The Beatles were the biggest band in the world a long way from when I first met them only a few years prior.

1967 saw the opening of The Apple Boutique, a retail outlet run by The Beatles fledgling multimedia company, Apple Corps. I think most of London was invited to the opening, ONeill said. I saw Cilla Black, and Twiggy and her manager Justin de Villeneuve. I remember they were serving apple juice because the store didnt have a liquor licence. It was a great opening and, for once, I wish Id used colour film, because the inside of the store was electric!

The Beatles broke up in 1970, but ONeill maintained personal and working relationships with the individual members. In 1974, he travelled to Henley- on-Thames to photograph George Harrison on the grounds of his neo- Gothic mansion, Friar Park. He had everything there, including a full studio that was apparently better than Abbey Road. He took me on a walk through the gardens. It was like a wonderland, complete with caves, gardens, grottoes and streams. There was this one little pool of water with a small deck that had the most perfect view of the house. George sat down on it, zen as anything, draped in his off-orange Hare Krishna wrap. He looked completely at peace. When I looked up and saw the outline of this magical- looking house behind him, I knew it was going to be a stunner of a portrait.